Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- A public high school in Iowa is drawing criticism from the pro-life community after it canceled a scheduled talk with pro-life advocate Alveda King. The former Georgia legislator and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been invited by officials at Roosevelt High School to speak.The former principal invited Dr. King to address students there but the new principal, Kathie Danielson, canceled the event.

LifeNews.com called the school and left a message as well as an email for Danielson but they were not returned by press time.

Kim Lehman, the director of Iowa Right to Life, called the cancellation a "civil rights shockwave" in comments she sent to LifeNews.com.

"Dr. King is an exceptional speaker with outstanding credentials, and yet they are not enough," Lehman said.

"Dr. King's speech is being censored and the students at Roosevelt High will not hear her speak on civil rights, abstinence and abortion because the new principal says that a few parents complained," Lehman added.

Lehman told LifeNews.com King is also scheduled to speak on Wednesday at Iowa State University and on Thursday at Drake University.

King has explained that the new civil rights struggle has to do with abortion and how black Americans are becoming victims of abortion at higher rates than their white counterparts.

"In the last forty-plus years, 15 million black people have been denied their most basic civil right, the right to life," King noticed.

"Roughly one quarter of the black population is now missing," she reflected. "This hasn't happened because of lynch mobs, but because of abortionists who plant their killing centers in minority neighborhoods and prey upon women who think they have no hope."

King said abortion is a "great irony" because it has decimated the African-American population in ways the Klu Klux Klan never could.

"It's time that we remember the sacrifices of men like my father and my uncle who worked and died so that our children could live," King concluded. "It's time to stop killing the future and keep their dream alive."

ACTION: Contact Roosevelt High School and Principal Kathie Danielson with your thoughts. Call 515.242.7272 or email Mrs. Danielson at kathie.danielson@dmps.k12.ia.us.